bare with me.

just a quick update:
i recently discovered that flickr will only display my most recent 200 pictures... and since i took over 100 just in taormina the other day, i was definitely frustrated. i originally planned on just uploading all of my pictures to flickr and then giving everyone the link to my photo stream so all of my photos were available in one spot. however, as that isn't exactly going to work out, i'm in the process of trying to figure what will be the best way to share ALL of my pictures with everyone. i think i've got it, i just need a little more time. on top of the photo thing i'm also working on changing the blog a bit AND writing some new posts featuring tips and general insights for anyone who is or is thinking of becoming an au pair. so one i begin posting again i should be coming back with quite a few new posts.
i'm also trying to dedicate more of my time to studying italian- which means about two hours a day that i won't be spending working on this... AND i'm trying to work some exercise into my daily routine. and also just generally spend less time on the internet...
anyway, here's a picture from my quick trip into taormina while you wait. let me tell you, i was there for three hours and the entire time i had to keep reminding myself i was in a real place, not on some movie set.

update: my current solution to the flickr foto fiasco is my new photo links page. we'll see how this goes. feedback would be greatly appreciated!

just some thoughts on a sunday.

today is my "day off", and let's just say my morning didn't exactly start well. so, understandably, i wasn't in the best of moods. i was laying on my "bed" catching up on some blogs and trying to take my mind off of what's bothering me and all of a sudden i hear ophelia start singing in her room. she has been singing for a few minutes now and it's so adorable that my mood has totally been lifted. ophelia and i definitely have some difficult moments, so it really makes me appreciate the times when i see how sweet she can be. i try to bottle them up and remember them at the times when she is ignoring me, or trying to run way in front of me when we're walking along a busy street and it's really hot and i'm tired because i was walking for an hour before she even got out of school and she acts like i don't even exist and neither do the crazy italian people who completely disregard all common sense when driving. and it actually works.
*update: it turns out she was actually writing a song for eva, who was away on an overnight camping trip for scouts. absolutely precious. she performed it for everyone when eva returned.

non parlo italiano.

i bought these books to help me learn italian. but really so far the only new things i've picked up are: "i don't speak italian" and some pronunciation things (like ci sounds like "chee") and that there are like four or five letters of the english alphabet that don't even exist in italian, oh and also that i hate italian. i'm sure i would love it if i could actually speak it, it's pretty awesome-sounding. however, i cannot speak italian. and italian is way harder than spanish. in spanish a singular "the" is always "el" or "la" depending on gender. in italian, the masculine singular "the" can be TWO different things and i don't really even know the difference yet. and don't get me started on making things plural... i miss spanish.
for now, i will keep up my "non parlo italiano" repetitions.

what i'm looking at right now.

so you can get the full ambience, this is what's playing in the background. no big deal. just an awesome patio, calabria, and a beautiful full moon..

what was that? oh, yes, my life is awesome. thank you for noticing.

cuppycakes, meet nespole.

until i came here i had never in my life seen nespole [ness-pole-ay] (called "medlars" in english, according to the interwebs). and, for all nineteen years of my life, i was fortunate to be ignorant of their existence. why? BECAUSE THEY ARE TOTALLY THE MOST DELICIOUS FRUIT EVER. seriously. my nespole will pwn your fruit with its awesome fuzzy stem behind its back.

help a cuppycake in need

i don't know if i mentioned this or not, but the other day renato and nathalie had a very interesting couple over for dinner. they both used to work as chefs and now the husband is a painter (he took my picture so he can paint sometime!) and the wife does catering and also teaches cooking courses. the purpose of the dinner was for them to come over and check out the house to see if we can have a sort of competition here. the competition will be for all of the pupils of the course which nathalie attends (around fifty or so) and it's kind of like a final exam for all of them. so that i don't feel left out renato has invited me to prepare something for the competition as well. i'm quite nervous. there will be about 100 people here (about 50 students and their friends/family). that's a lot.
renato suggested that i make something that is traditionally american... but since america is pretty much a mixture of every other place in the world, that is kind of difficult. when i think american food i think burgers and fries... but making a sampling of burgers isn't as simple as it may sound. tiny buns aren't easy come by. especially in a country where people don't even eat hamburgers. finding the perfect thing isn't going to be easy. and unfortunately i don't really know much about cooking... but what i do know is cute. i will probably be spending the next few days scouring the bakerella website. i saw these mini burger and fries trays the other day, but as adorbale as they look, they don't look particularly tasty... a brownie between two sugar cookies is a bit much for me. anyway, if you have any suggestions about something cute, simple, and delicious i could make PLEASE feel free to send them my way.
ciao!

cuppycake polish.

just a quick update: you may notice that i have removed my twitter feed from the sidebar. if you follow my tweets or are my facebook friend you may have seen me posting about my low twibido...
back home i generally only used twitter from my phone. here in italy i have disabled data roaming on my phone because it is something like $19.95 per megabyte received (CRAZY!)... which means i cannot access twitter on my dear, sweet iphone. so i will probably not be tweeting at all over the summer... rending that particular widget totally useless for my page.
and, if you are perceptive enough to have notice the disappearance of my twitter widget, you have probably noticed its replacement, mr. formspring widget. formspring widget, meet cuppycake followers. followers, meet formspring widget. feel free to use mr. formspring widget to ask me anything, blog-related or not (though i would prefer them to be related to the blog/my experience here in messina). but, in the end, the choice is yours. i will check my formspring.me inbox daily and i hope to get some great questions from you all.
ciao!

scacchi e damas

the other day eva taught me how to play scacchi [ska-kee] which is the italian name for chess. it was quite fun. afterwards ophelia arrived (she had a full day of school and eva only a half-day) and she was on my team for a game of damas (checkers, which i recognized because it is also called damas in spanish). playing games is proving to be a good way for the girls to practice english with me in a nice, relaxed environment. it's helping me to learn some italian as well!

the cuppycake and italian boiled peanuts.

i know this post will definitely draw a lot of attention from "y'all" back home. today i ate lupini.

festivus for the rest of us.

last night the italian futbol team was in some sort of huge game... i don't really know the specifics. during the day there were a vendors on the streets selling team paraphernalia. futbol is a big deal here. on the way to pick up the girls last night we stopped at a supermarket to get a few things because pretty much everything is closed on sunday here. there were quite a few people buzzing around trying to pick up odds and ends, and renato told me that this was because soon EVERYONE would be home in front of the television to watch the game.
luckily for me renato and nathalie don't really care about futbol, because sports certainly aren't anywhere near the top of my list of saturday fun-time things. i was much more excited that we went to a gallery event for some of their friends at an antiques shop while the girls were at their party.
as it turns out our team won. i know this because of the massive celebrations of which i was an unwilling participant. as nathalie, renato, and i sat at the small table in the kitchen having a little dinner and some conversation about my life back home we could hear the shouts of joy from people all around the city. victorious horn honking. LOUD music pouring from cars driving by.
it was late and when we were done eating i thought i would fall straight asleep. HAH! i thought wrong. FIREWORKS! BANG! POP! not exactly a lullaby. more honking. a little more yelling. going through my mind were a combination of hyperbole and a half scenes and "oh, brother!"'s (like that lady on SNL's weekend update).
it was so different. the only thing i can really compare it to is the superbowl... but times about ten thousand. at least with the superbowl there is no loud celebration... if you don't care about the superbowl, then superbowl sunday can be just another sunday for you. with futbol? not a chance.

feeling like a very tiny cuppycake.

DSCN0691, originally uploaded by cuppycake843.

the apartment where i'm staying is very modern, so, just looking around me, it seems like i could be almost anywhere in the modern world. the actual history around me is more evident from ground level. this picture is of an ancient theatre in catania. the picture was taken from a window inside antonio presti's home, which is in the center of the city. the juxtaposition of it all is very interesting. an ancient theatre preserved, but ignored. it is closed off by this little fence, only waist-high. all around it there is busy traffic, streetlights, stop signs, people quickly walking by- a piece of an an ancient era totally surrounded by modern life.

the cuppycake and "la porta della belleza"

hello cuppycakes! "'the time has come' the walrus said, 'to talk of other things...'" (sorry, i watched the old alice in wonderland the other night). it has been three days and i am finally getting around to posting about my adventures here in italy. my first experience leaving the apartment involved a one hour drive into catania, where the airport i arrived at is located. it was a great drive with beautiful views of mt. etna (the largest volcano in europe!) and taormina. on the way renato tried to explain to me exactly what it was we were going to see. so, i will try and relay to you what was happening as best as i can through my interpretation of what he was trying to tell me and what i percieved while we were there.

sorry cuppycakes!

this blog has, admittedly, been very low on my priority list since my arrival in messina. but, armed with a slew of awesome pictures of a totally touching art exhibition in catania, i will change that... tomorrow. this is, unfortunately, just a quick update to let you know i am here and safe. the girls are great. the family is lovely. i'm eating tons of things i usually don't, and i'm taking great pictures. i have also spent most of my internet time chatting with my wonderful boyfriend, so tomorrow i will dedicate more time to you. while you wait, you can view a quick album dedicated to my day in catania. it's just an auto-upload from iphoto, nothing much... descriptions will be posted here tomorrow.
ciao

silver linings

well, of course, my flight would get delayed. so i will be attempting to leave tomorrow at the same time. though, for the inconvenience they did bump me up to first class for my eight hour flight... which should be pretty awesome. all-in-all, even though this put a damper on my meeting with ayana and will postpone my trip to scicli, i'm pleased. an extra day with my boyfriend and a first class seat for my terribly long flight? sounds pretty nice to me.

utter madness.

i know i have already written a post about how i have so little time and so much to do... well, yeah... you can just cut that and paste here about twenty times. i now have less than one week and i have accomplished pretty much nothing. i have today off from work, so i am going to buckle down and try and knock out most of this stuff so i can enjoy my last few days with my boyfriend... but this impending travel date is pretty overwhelming. i mean, there is less than three weeks between nathalie booking my ticket and the day i am supposed to leave. and at the time that i first saw the ticket, i was thinking i had PLENTY of time. nuh-uh. not so. granted, i did put in quite a bit of time tinkering around with this blog last week, but knowing my procrastinator ways i wouldn't have been doing anything to get ready for my trip anyway.
so, cross your fingers for me- and if you see me on facebook, twitter, etc over the next few days, hound me about whether i've gotten my work done first.
ciao cuppycakes

another sigh of relief

i just subscribed to a podcast to help me learn some italian. the possibility of not being able to communicate with those around me has been weighing heavy on my mind as i try to envision what my time in italy will be like. though, i can't really say why. i did extremely well with foreign language in school, and when dealing with non-english-speaking customers at work i am never uneasy and feel like i can still communicate well. but, i suppose it's just my worrisome nature. anyway, the podcast is from learn italian pod and i have downloaded the five minutes a day series. after listening to a couple, i realized that i don't have anything to worry about. my knowledge of spanish is extremely handy- i recognized the meaning of many of the words and phrases due to their similarity to spanish. so, i believe that with some time spent just immersing myself in the language i will pick it up pretty well. with only three months there, i can't say i'll be coming back a fluent speaker of italian, but i feel confident that by the time august 12th rolls around i will be fairly comfortable in an italian-speaking situation.
wish me "buona fortuna"

whew.

all i can say right now is "whew!" i just an e-mail update about my passport! my application has been approved and my passport is being printed! my passport has probably been the number cause of stress for me over the past few weeks. i am extremely anxiety-prone, so i of course had all of these visions of may 14th arriving, and my passport still not being here. over the past year or so it has seemed that every time i try to take a step forward i get knocked back at the last moment. and in the case of me going to italy (which a part of me will still plan on not actually happening until i am really there) my passport has been the main (foreseeable) hang-up. now that i know it will get here in plenty of time, it's becoming a lot easier for me to accept and feel excited about my trip. everything seems to be coming together, and i feel like it's almost time for me to be able to take a deep and proclaim my departure from summerville, sc.

the good and the bad.

i've always preferred the bad news first, so that's how i'll give it to ya. i checked my passport status online this morning. it's still being processed! ah! i am scheduled to leave so soon! *see countdown in the sidebar. it gave a number to call if you were traveling in seven days or less, so if i see no progress between now and then i will definitely be dialing that... but for now i have registered for e-mail notifications and will just be sweating it out i guess.

now for the good news: i just received an e-mail from nathalie, which is always exciting. she was writing to let me know that on sunday, may 16th (which is the day after my arrival) we will be visiting an old baroque city in the south of sicily called scicli. after some google magic (she spelled it differently in her e-mail... you'd be surprised at the difference little letter can make) i easily found some images of it. hopefully i'll be posting some of my own after my visit. it's beautiful, of course. and also classified as an UNESCO world heritage site. she said that while there we will be tasting wine, oil, essenza (essences, i presume) and just visiting the city. i am hesitant about a wine tasting, as i've never had wine, or any alcohol at all for that matter. but still incredibly exciting news! as each day passes i find it's increasingly difficult to focus on anything but italy. i just hope my passport is here in time...

so. much. to. do.

these are going to be two of the most hectic weeks i've had in quite a while. there are so many things i need to do, and even more things that i'd like to do. i will be spending the next three months in a foreign country, so there are some very obvious preparations involved there (packing, packing, packing, spend time with friends/boyfriend/dad, packing, spend time with dad, find necessary items such as a power converter, try and learn a little of the language and culture of italy, packing, etc). but also, while i am gone, my dad is putting this house on the market. so i am trying to tidy up the place, as well organize and take inventory of my belongings that are remaining stateside... just in case.
and, on top of everything, my boyfriend will be moving back to california at about the same that i will be leaving for italia. which means that while i am there we will have a nine hour time difference between us. and also that when i leave there, there will be an indefinite (but definitely long) period of time before i get to see him again. it's terribly difficult to be totally unsure of the next time you will get to see the person you love. i would love to spend the entirety of these next two weeks with him, just hanging out, being us- but there is so. much. to. do.
despite all this however, i still cannot wait to be in messina. it's in the back of my mind all day. i've been ready for a new adventure for what seems like forever now. and, as you can see from my little countdown over in the sidebar, i don't have to wait much longer.
well, enough rambling for now.
buona notte (which is "goodnight" in italian- my phrase for the day) everyone.